


Yet the Same

by hamburger666



Category: RWBY
Genre: Ace!Yang, Bee's Schnees - Freeform, Bumbleby - Freeform, F/F, Freezerburn - Freeform, Kissing, Monochrome, Team as Family, just squint a little
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-15
Updated: 2018-06-15
Packaged: 2019-05-23 15:02:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,491
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14936537
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hamburger666/pseuds/hamburger666
Summary: Yang does what she can to ease her friends' troubles and considers her own on the journey.





	Yet the Same

**Author's Note:**

> takes place during s2

She knows the rumors, of course. 

She’s loud; she’s attractive; she has a quick wit and a fiery temper and people just seem to draw their own conclusions. What can she do about that? It’s not surprising, then, when Cardin sidles up to her after class day after day, or when she catches sight of Pyrrha’s blush after a great (but slightly suggestive) mid-battle heckle. A little attention is good, Yang considers, but the truth is she doesn’t feel much of anything at all. No butterflies, no heart palpitations, no red face or burning ears or sweaty palms.

It throws her off.

But anyway, there’s nothing to be done except carry on with her life, and carry on she does. Class is fine, the friends she makes are fun (if a little odd), and her teammates are doing…well. 

Okay, maybe that’s not exactly right. 

Her teammates _had_ been doing well, mostly, but then Blake and Weiss had to go for each other’s throats, and some crazy stuff had happened, and there was fighting and running and then everything was kind of a mess for a while, if Yang were being honest with herself. But they were getting back into the swing of it, and Ruby was learning to take charge, and sometimes it felt like they really were a family.

Yang knows this, though: when someone in your family is having a hard time, you don’t just ignore it. She nods to herself, once and with finality, as she jogs through the campus, almost empty on a Friday evening. Most of the other students are out in the city or in watching movies and playing video games, but, well, Team RWBY never rests. So Yang turns down the path to the library and pushes open the door and strolls easily to the far left corner of the second floor, where Blake’s got a beanbag chair tucked away that Yang knows serves as her partner’s favorite reading spot-slash-hiding place. 

They are partners, after all, even if Blake won’t tell Yang anything, even if Yang has to track down every shame and secret and stress of Blake’s until it feels like the girl’s diary has spilled all over her hands and she can see Blake’s face finally, finally relax.

 _Probably not today,_ Yang admits to herself, crouching next to the beanbag and sighing at the notes all over the floor and the frown on the faunus’s face, present even as she dozes.

“Blakey.”

She runs a hand up and down Blake’s arm— the girl needs to sleep, but the library will close soon anyway and sleeping in your own bed has to be more comfortable than on a beanbag, right? Blake’s eyes open slowly, and Yang might possibly need to reconsider her earlier statement, ‘cause she does feel _something_ in the instant those bright yellow eyes meet hers. It’s good, it’s warm, but it’s gone the second the wall snaps back up and so Yang just rocks back on her heels, thoughtful. 

“Yang? What time is it?” Blake’s voice is gravelly as she pushes unsteadily at the beanbag.

“Time to go, Blakey-boo. You can sleep in your bed, okay?”

Well, Blake must be more tired than she thought, ‘cause she doesn’t even respond, just starts shuffling down the stairs in silence. Yang hurries to walk next to her and feels the cool night air hit them as they exit the library. But the warmth is there again, too, as Blake slips an arm through hers, eyes fixed on some distant point. They walk like that, for a minute.

“I don’t know if I can do this.” 

Yang stops, letting Blake’s words rattle her at the same time she prays for more.

“The White Fang is coming, Yang, and we don’t know where or when or why. And I keep looking, and listening, and reading, and there’s just—there’s nothing! There’s no indication of anything! Why are they working with humans? Why do they need so much dust? I can’t…I don’t know what else to do, Yang. I don’t know,” Blake’s shaking voice fades away and her crumpled face shines wet as Yang pulls herself into action, as if her body knows what to do in this situation long before her mind can catch up with Blake’s words. 

She cups her partner’s face in her hands and places her lips, gently, against the girl’s forehead. Blake doesn’t pull away, so Yang pushes a little more, wiping her tears and peppering kisses anywhere her thumbs track. A hiccup, a flurry of motion, and Blake is tucking herself under her chin, body wracked with sobs. Somehow, Yang doesn’t feel far behind.

They stand there a long time, and despite the cool night air, despite the lack of butterflies and blushes and sweaty hands, Yang feels so much warmer than she’s ever been before.

* * *

It’s something, Yang thinks, but it isn’t really enough, is it? A week later and Blake still has bags under her eyes, but Yang helps her in the library, accompanies her on missions, lays a palm on the small of Blake’s back and pushes her to bed when she sees her partner’s hands start to shake. Things seem a little better here, at least, so Yang shuffles her attention around and watches her family put itself together again. Another snag though—it’s not a surprise so much as it’s an inevitability, really. 

The Ice Queen, this time. Despite appearances, Weiss is much more of a doer than Ruby or Blake, something Yang feels they have in common. Weiss is prone to quick reactions, jumping into a fight with the same poorly-disguised enthusiasm she dedicates to dismantling Ruby’s pranks or discussing tactics over a chessboard with Blake. All roads lead to action with Weiss, and that’s why Yang notices when the action picks up.

Weiss starts running. Five in the morning and ten at night, every day like clockwork. Once, when Yang finally manages to show up to their weapon mechanics class with a few minutes to spare, she spies Weiss coming out of the bathroom, face flushed and sweaty, shoving a sports bra into her bag. 

She’s always been fit, Yang knows, but it’s a practical fitness that comes from combat, from hard work against classmates and family and the battle robots Yang’s heard they have in Atlas but has never seen herself. Weiss seldom stops practicing, but Yang has never seen her _exercise._

To her credit, Ruby tries first. Calls Weiss out for driving herself into the ground, for trading sleep for sweat as if it were a currency she could just spend and spend until opening her wallet reveals only a spider web and a puff of dust, like in the cartoons. Yang watches, knowing a direct confrontation isn’t going to work on the girl who’s been fighting her own battles since she was old enough to talk. But Weiss is Ruby’s partner, and Ruby is their leader, so she lets her sister stumble through Weiss’s irritability and stubbornness, waiting for the right time.

It’s not until Blake comes to her, tells her hesitantly that she heard Ruby crying in the bathroom twice in the past four days, that Yang realizes the right time might not exist.

Someone has to help, so on a chilly fall morning, Yang finds herself watching her breath fog as she walks to the track at 4:55 a.m. Weiss is already there, stretching and scowling at her.

“What are you doing here, Xiao Long?” 

Weiss’s voice is really too sharp for this hour, Yang thinks, yawning. “I wanna run, Weiss. Can I come with you?”

She still looks suspicious, but acquiesces, and Yang steps in beside her, copying her stretches. The time passes easily enough, the girls falling into step together as they jog around the track, starting slow but speeding up with every lap. Weiss’s legs are short, though, and Yang’s not exactly a slob, so she isn’t even out of breath by the time they round through the fourth lap.

Yang decides to talk.

“Aren’t you tired, Weiss? It’s really early…” Yang lets her voice trail off as the other girl’s eyes snap toward her.

“Is that what this is about? I’m not,” Weiss sounds matter-of-fact as she refocuses on the numbers lining the track. “I need to increase my stamina, you _know_ that.”

“Okay. Just seems like a lot, is all,” Yang tries to smile inoffensively, to give Weiss space and support at the same time. So they run in silence again, Yang counting the beats of their shoes and watching as the look of concentration on Weiss’s face goes in and out of focus.

The eighth lap finishes and Weiss stops, hands on her knees, chest heaving. She looks up at Yang, pensive. A minute passes and Weiss stands, starts to lead them back to campus. Yang chalks this one up to a loss, wonders if maybe Weiss really does have things under control. But then—

Then, Weiss stops. Weiss turns, face like a stone. Yang tries again to smile, disarmed—space and support. Space and support.

“When Blake figures this out, when we find the White Fang and we take care of whatever’s going on, I have to be ready. We can’t lose, Yang. I need to do something, to make sure we win. I can’t just sit around,” she kicks a rock, frustrated, and looks back up. “I need to do something.”

Yang knows they call Weiss the Ice Queen, but the look in her eyes burns like fire. And Yang considers herself a fiery sort, knows what it’s like to feel useless but so full of energy you might burst. So she steps in, _leans_ in, and their lips meet all at once. There’s some fumbling, some handsiness on both their parts, but Weiss has clearly been paying attention and she keeps her hands far away from anywhere Yang has drawn her own boundary lines.

After a while, Weiss is the one to pull away, startled but laughing. Yang feels that warmth again, deep deep down, and drapes her sweaty arm across Weiss’s shoulder as they make their way back to the dorms.

* * *

Just like that, the team is smushed back into place again. They’re laughing at breakfast, reading and napping and training and researching, and Yang thinks they might be able to do anything, all together like this. She talks to Blake, even, keeping her tone light as she tells her what happened on the track. They haven’t…none of them have talked about anything, really, so there’s no need, but Yang is honest to her core and doesn’t want to hurt any part of her family. Plus, selfishly, guiltily, she wants to hang on to the warmth, butterflies or not. That’s why, when she walks into the library on a Saturday afternoon and sees Blake and Weiss huddled together over notes and books and maps, faces focused but somehow, maybe, less stressed than before, she turns around and walks straight back out. 

She meanders around a bit, then plops down on a shady patch of soft-looking grass a little ways behind the science building. Yang wiggles her fingers and toes, absently, staring up at the tree above her head and trying not to think too far into the future. 

“Hi, Yang!”

The voice is familiar, of course it is, but it takes Yang a second to find the red cape fluttering above her in the branches. She plasters on her trademark grin and waves at her little sister as the girl swings down to sit next to her.

“Whatcha doing here, sis?” the words are right, but Yang’s brusque tone startles herself. “Sorry.” She picks at the grass.

Ruby just laughs, that hollow chuckle that only pops out when she’s been overthinking and her nerves are getting the best of her. “Oh, you know. Just…climbing. Where are Weiss and Blake?”

“Research, I think. In the library. I decided to leave them to it, though. Get some air,” Yang breathes in deep, as if air really were her main concern. “How are you doing, Rubes?”

Staring at her fingernails, Ruby imitates her, taking a deep breath before she speaks. “Do you think I’m a good leader?”

Yang sits up, then, and faces Ruby fully. “Of course you are! Rubes, you can’t be perfect the first time you do something. You’re learning, you’re practicing, you’re trying harder than anyone, and we’re doing fine. Isn’t that what makes someone a good leader?”

“But Yang…you and Blake and Weiss have been working so hard! I mean you’re always at the library, or doing missions, or training and, well, I’m just goofing around,” she huffs and throws some grass at her feet, but her eyes are narrowed at the dirt. “I couldn’t even stop them from fighting. I didn’t make sure Blake was eating, or Weiss was getting enough sleep, and now you’re grumpy all the time too and I’m the one who needs to keep the team together!” 

Yang doesn’t know how to respond to that, never considered that someone might someday use the word “grumpy” to describe her, but she opens her mouth to respond anyway. 

She closes it again, and fast, because she hears “RUBY ROSE!” behind her, in about the shrillest voice imaginable. 

“We are plenty capable of taking care of ourselves,” Weiss steps up to them airily, like the sisters hadn’t had to stage interventions for her and Blake both in the past two weeks. The faunus is about three steps behind Weiss and absolutely laden with books, but she smiles gently at Ruby.

“I think you’re going to be a great leader,” she says, eyes twinkling. “But the _best_ leader would help me carry these books.”

“I can do that!” Ruby squeaks, bouncing over to take as many as she can off of the pile.

“Really, Ruby,” Weiss’s “lecture” voice is full-force now, “everything is fine. We’re a team, we just need to take care of each other and things will work themselves out. Now, we’re going to miss dinner if we keep wasting time here,” Weiss waves her hand once and stalks off, apparently considering the matter settled.

With a good-natured eye-roll, Blake smiles at Yang and Ruby and turns to follow Weiss at an awkward little half-jog.

That leaves Yang looking down at her little sister, but Ruby’s face seems hopeful now, and determined. “They mean that, Rubes.” Yang ruffles her hair, takes a book from the pile and plants a kiss on the top of Ruby’s head.

* * *

Later, when they’re finishing off dessert, as Yang watches Ruby and Weiss bicker about the last cherry in their massive chocolate sundae, watches Blake reach around Ruby and pop it into her own mouth before the other girls notice, she feels it again. She looks at her family, and she doesn’t feel out of sorts at all. She feels warm.

**Author's Note:**

> gf review: structure is boring, 6/10
> 
> *shrug emoji*


End file.
